Question - sending emails without getting SPAM reputation

I am considering sending emails to a list of commercial companies offering them my website services.

To use the list (10,000 emails) my concern is that my domain may pick up SPAM reputation so I am looking at ways round this, options such as:

1 - use another domain name to send emails from but add my domain link in the email. Example; use mail-mydomain.com for sending emails and add the link mydomain.com in the emails sent.

2 - use a third party email sender service

Has anyone got experience of this and do you have any advice to offer?

Thanks

 

I'd use a third party.

One problem with just using a separate domain is that the server and/or IP address may get blacklisted, taking your main site along with it.

 

Thanks for the feedback - would tihs be the case if I use a separate host company for the other domain that email would be sent from?

 

It's better to use another hosting account + another domain in your emails because if you get a spam complaint, the link in the bottom email will also be considered as spam.

 

Thanks

So could a solution be to use a url in my email that is not the actual website but a url that is re-directed to my website. Then my website would be protected?

 

The best solution would to be not spam people.

Somehow I doubt these 10000 companies a) opted in to your list, b) were not harvested electronically.

 

Thanks for the post, however I do not want to be tainted with a label as a spammer, so here are some facts:

Firstly these are UK email addresses and thus fall under UK and EU regulations which are different from US (if this is your reference). Under UK regs commerical businesses are treated differnetly from private individuals.

Secondly the emails are obtained from a very reputable marketing database for business-to-business marketing.

Thirdly I have checked all of this with a lawyer from the UK Institute of Directors.

Back to my orignal post, I am looking for advice so that I do not get labelled as a spammer by the various databases and search engines which tend not to follow a specific country's regulations.

 

If I was lucky enough to have a list like yours, I would use a separate email address, but also make it clear that the email isn't spam, and give them the option if they would like to be contacted again.

 

Your biggest problem in terms of damage to the company's reputation is not going to be the automatic labeling through RBLs and automated complaints that come through operations like SpamCop, it's going to be people who read the email, click the link and then complain directly about your company as being a bunch of spammers. In terms of RBLs and such, sure, there are any number of safeguards you can use to mitigate the effects of sending the kind of email you're planning on sending. Separate mailing domain, run your email against general spam scoring systems to clean up your content, etc.

It's hard for me to understand exactly what your perception is about how someone gets labeled a spammer or what you mean by "various databases and search engines," so I've tried to answer based on years of experience in email marketing. The consumer or business community's perception is managed largely separately from the internet/ISP community's perception. You can be in AOL's good graces when it comes to their SCOMP program and still have pissed off users filing complaints and vice versa. You know, there's automated stuff and there's user generated stuff. People take SpamCop seriously to a degree and RBLs generally less so, but the average joe isn't going to find your company in these systems since they won't tie your primary domain (or proper company name) to the mailing domain. User generated complaints will be, however, and these users will complain on groups and forums and this will show up on search engines.

I ran a double opt-in list for a commercial site for a number of years after 1999. We started off somewhat skethcy just because email marketing was relatively new and we didn't know what we were doing, but we cleaned it up quickly. Years after cleaning it up we would still have people register, opt-in to receive email (with like a giant 'what kind of email would you like to receive?' box on the opt in screen), confirm and then file a complaint two weeks later saying they had never opted in. We would contact them if we could figure out their identity through their munged postings and try to tell them to just click the unsubscribe link - that we had no desire to mail them if they didn't want it. Their response? "I know your game! If I click those links then it just tells you that I exist and I get more spam!" While I understand that you're renting a list and not building one and therefore you don't have the (shall we say) moral cover of "you opted in," the point of my story is that there's a certain percentage of your list (<1% in my experience) that will be, just like above, completely irrational with respect to email. It just can't be mitigated except by not sending the email.

Also, expect to have a certain number of people even in this field automatically dislike you because you have anything to do with email, heh. It's why I basically got out of the field on a personal level. I still work with people who work with it and broker relationships, even in my current situation, but I try to avoid getting my hands dirty as the stigma is just too much to deal with.

 

Just use another host.

 

Thanks on-on for the detailed reply, taking your feedback I will consider seriously before implementing any email marketing - and may even opt out of this type of marketing altogether.

 

On second reading, my tone may have come across more terse than I intended - the curse of the internet. If you describe your materials and goals in a little more detail and voice your concerns about damage to reputation and goodwill a little differently maybe I can elaborate on ways to address them or, at least, probability of those concerns being realized? So much of the decision to undertake a given effort depends on the goal of the campaign, the quality of the list and many other things. Good luck either way!

 

How about you simply send your list an opt in option. Let them know you would like to send them more info, but only if they click a link to an opt in list form. Place the form on a free hosting site that will support it.

 

I think you need to give some serious thought as to whether this is even worth the trouble.

These companies get spam emails every day offering web design services.

You're unlikely to get your email read by the lowliest assistant.

When you're offering a high priced service like web design you're far better off targeting a much lower number of more tightly niched prospects and doing it offline first (letter, postcard, personal visit).

So you might decide to do web design for restaurants and physically go and visit restaurant owners and offer them a package.

You can visit 10-20 restaurants in a day quite easily and if you only get 1 in 10 take you up on your offer you'll get 1-2 new clients a day.

Being tightly niched and targeting real live people will get you a response you can take to the bank.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

 

I would've suggested that as well, but I assumed, probably in error, that's what he was doing. If not, what John says is true - you should never start an email relationship with someone by just hitting them with an ad. It's ok to conflate the marketing message and the confirmation in the welcome email, at least I think it is, but the confirmation-ish tone should always be prevalent. In otherwords, it should be clear to them that you're emailing them to get their permission to establish a relationship. You don't have to close the door on a future opt-in email as well, but you shouldn't blindside people who haven't taken an action. At the same time, it's not wrong (imo at least) to spice up your confirmation by using a hook or a good call to action and it's not wrong to spice up the landing page either - in fact you should do these things - as long as the content of the email makes it clear that it's in the spirit of confirming their affirmation to receive a message.

I agree with this too, if in fact you're selling web design to domain/company owners. Domain owners, particularly, are about the bitchiest possible group of people (I say this as one) you could possibly mail to aside from maybe nocs and sysadmins, heh. Approaching them in any kind of new and novel way would be about 100x better than sending them an email. We get so much spam email from harvesters that tons of it goes into the scrap heap automatically.

 

Use Google Hosted Email Service. I highly recommend it. As long as your letters / emails have a good content and subjects, email servers will not block your messages.

Just focus on how to make your email content not too look like a spam email.

 

What is Spam anyway? If and when the receiver says it's spam, that moment
it becomes spam, regardless of the content, regulations or any terms anyone
or nobody agreed to previously.

All in the eyes of the beholder. That's why it's always about recipients' consent.
If you have a list with my name on it, and you got that name from someone else,
then i would like to be asked again if it's ok to send me YOUR messages also,
because obviously I didn't give this permission to you yet. And it isn't for sale.

That's why any list that is bought has to go through another sign-up process first,
before you can actually market anything to them. Now depends on your personal
approach if you get more than 1% sign-up conversion out of a broker list. Buyers
of lists "assume" because of the purchase the consent to receive email is transferable,
and technically it is. What is not transferable is the relationship. And email marketing
is always about a relationship, especially from the recipient's view. They are ones
that cry "spam" if they feel 'used' 'sold' or otherwise treated as desposalable items.

The recipient not only has to agree to this relationship, the proposal must speak it
benefits loud and clear and look desirable enough to actually want this new relationship.

Again, it should be obvious, you just need to see every single point of it from the
receiver's point of view. If you don't understand the wants and needs of recipients,
don't touch email or any list. It's a delicate method, and easier for people that know
already how to start personal relationships in the offline world.

How does any relationship start? With agreement of both parties.

 

Gordano's proposal is spam. Plain and simple. Buying the services of a direct mail spammer is not going to prevent you and your website being marked as that of a spammer. Your domain(s) will go into black lists which are based on the content of the email message and not the content of the header. If one of the companies on the email list is a dummy set up by the UK-based spamhaus, you will be in serious, long term do-do on the internet.

Opt-out links do not make you look like a non-spammer. What is the first lesson of all anti-spam strategies? Never click on links or opt-out of spam! As spamhaus reminds us:

There are several, better ways to market your services:

1 - create a UK targetted AdWords campaign
2 - participate on forums potential customers are likely to visit
3 - issue a press release to local media when you do someting new, interesting, or come up with a bold design idea that helps people expand their businesses if they go online
4 - attend conferences your customers might attend and get your business card and 15-second pitch out to as many people as possible

 

Buying email lists and sending out non-personal, cut 'n' paste stock
messages is unlikely to get a decent response. Your messages will
either get binned, read by the receptionist and binned or perhaps
never even reach a real inbox in the first place.

Besides which, can your business handle another 10,000 clients?

I agree with Andrew's suggestions. Do some research, and either visit,
call or send postcards to a few select companies. Or, contact your
previous customers and ask whether they know of anyone else that
might need your services.

Word of mouth referrals are brilliant.

 

Don't spam, you will annoy them, just use adword or other ppc, if your serivce is that great.